Owning a car is expensive. Paying for the car, the insurance, maintenance, and gas among other things adds up to a huge chunk of our income.

As finance blog 20 Something Finance points out, driving is one of the most expensive things that we do in modern society (second only to our housing costs, and often above food costs):

The average miles driven per year in the U.S. for a 20-34 year old is 15,098. 35-54 year-olds come in at 15,291. That’s a lot of driving.

Actually, it’s enough driving to cross the entire United States from New York City to San Francisco – 5 times over. And the cost of all that driving comes out to a mean of $8,582 per 2-person household.

Clearly, this is just too much money. How do you cut down on the costs of owning and operating a vehicle? Buying cheaper cars than you can afford? Walking as often as possible? Super secret insurance hacks?